Cooking utensil and method



Jan. 10, 1950 A. c. SCAVULLO 2,494,266

COOKING UTENSIL AND METHOD Original Filed April 11, 1940 Patented Jan. 10, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFl'CE 2,494,266 COOKING UTENSIL AND METHOD Angelo C. Scavullo, Forest Hills, N. Y., assignor to Victor K. Scavullo, Frank Scavullo, Charles Scavullo, Marie Scavullo Saegert, and Margaret Scavullo Scott, all of Forest Hills, N. Y.

Original application April 11, 1940, Serial No. 329,188. Divided and this application April 17, 1944, Serial No. 531,441

3 Claims. (Cl. 220-64) 1 I z This application is a division of my copending conductive characteristics. A number of utenapplication Serial No. 329,188 filed April 11, 1940, sils of this character were made by having the two entitled Cooking utensils and method, now Patmetals tightly fitted together and spot-welded ,ent 2,358,104, of September 12, 1944, which in but this previously was not successful due to the turn is a continuation-in-part of application 5 danger of a crack forming between the metals 154,246, filed July, 17, 1937, entitled Cooking and water going into the crack. In one case utensil, now abandoned, and the invention rethis crack became partially closed so that, on

lates to cooking utensils having desirable heat heating, the steam generated caused a rupture conduction and corrosion resistance characterof the vessel. Efforts have been made to elecistics and to a method and apparatus for making trocleposit or spray copper on stainless steel but such utensils. without success because the copper tends to peel One of the objects of my invention is to prooff and form blisters.

vide a rugged and durable utensil which is highly In the prior art, it has been proposed to apply resistant to the corrosive attack of foods and 'a layer of conductive material to the bottom of a also has high lateral heat conductivity so that l5 stainless steel vessel by riveting, casting, or other food placed therein may be heated uniformly method. A vessel so formed is not satisfactory without requiring constant attention and withbecause heat is not readily conducted to its sides out the food being scorched by local hot spots. as well as its bottom and consequently the heat- Another object is to provide a simple, direct, ing of food therein will still be uneven. Furtherefllcient and economical method and apparatus more, such a vessel has been found in practice for making such a utensil. to be defective because of tendencies to become Another object is to provide a handle which can warped and blistered in use. It has also been be firmly attached to such a utensil in a simproposed to construct a vessel with an inner ple and inexpensive manner. layer of stainless steel, an intermediate layer of Other objects will be in part apparent and in 2.3 mild steel or cuprous alloy and an outer layer part pointed out hereinafter, of enamel. Such a vessel is obviously ineflicient The invention accordingly consists in the combecause f t l w a conductivity f nam l.

bination of elements, features of construction and w h has the f r her dis v n a e ha i bearrangement of parts, and in the several steps Comes pp d W Subjected to heavy handlingand the relation of each of the same to one or ccording to this invention copp s b e more of the others as described herein, the scope c ssfully united to the sides as well as to the of the application of which is indicated in th bottom of a stainless steel vessel without any appended claims. danger of having the copper tend to peel ofi.

In the accompanying drawing, Specifically this is accomplished by the inter- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of {3- position of a layer of ordinary steel to which the the apparatus employed to carry out one step pp is adapted to adhere better than it does of forming my utensil. to the stainless steel.

Figure 2 shows the method of attaching a han- In the past, handles e been Secured 0 dle to the utensil, and cooking vessels by riveting them on. That meth- Figure 3 i a cross-sectional view f th com- 0d of attaching a handle has the disadvantages pleted utensil ith th ha dl tt h d, that it involves several steps and the handle is Like reference characters refer to like parts liable to work loose in heavy use. In my inventhroughout the several views of the drawing. tion, I P e for Welding the a d e to the -As conducive to a clearer understanding of vessel so that a firm union of pleasing appearance certain features of my invention it may be noted 4 formed n n Op i n w i is p e and at this point that it is desirable to use stainless p esteel as a material for the construction of cook- Referring now more particularly to the pracing utensils because of its superior resistance to tice of my ention, attention is directed to the corrosive attack of foods. A serious objec- Figure 1 of the drawing wherein, illustratively,

tion to its use is that it has low heat conductivity. I have shown a suitable form of my apparatus Heat applied to one portion of a pan made solely for applying a copper coating to the vessel by of stainless steel does not difluse to the other an electroplating process.

portions of the pan but remains concentrated The inside portion of the vessel is formed of in the one portion with the consequence that a layer I0 of stainless steel, that selected being food on that portion will be burned and food what s known in the trade as 18-8 stainless steel in other portions will not be cooked unless the of suffident thickness to withstand wear for mass of food is continually stirred. many years. About .050 of an inch has been It has been proposed to make a utensil of found appropriate for the stainless steel liner stainless steel on the inside and thick copper I0 though other dimensions more or less than on the outside as copper possesses excellent heat this amount may be used. The layer II is a 3 material which is adapted to be united intimately with the stainless steel and at the same time is also capable of being intimately united with the copper. For this purpose ordinary non-stainless or mild steel is used. The thickness of the mild steel layer ll may be less, about the same, or greater than the thickness of the stainless steel liner 10, though preferably due to its thermal function in this invention it is made thicker than the stainless steel liner. The layers ill and II are intimately united at the mill by heat and rolling and the duplex steel purchased from the mill in sizes and thicknesses desired. After being cut to size the sheet material is shaped between forming dies in order to provide a cooking utensil of the desired kind. In the shaping, of course, care must be taken to see that the stainless steel liner is on the inside because the non-stainless steel is adapted to have copper united thereto in a more satisfactory fashion than the copper is capable of uniting to the stainless steel. In

' this way the thick copper layer may be indirectly attached to the stainless steel since the liner II is intimately united with the stainless steel at the mill.

The outside of the vessel is cleaned by pickling or in other ways and its inner stainless steel surface is coated with beeswax to prevent the depositing of any copper thereon. The vessel is put into position for electroplating in the tank I2. A copper bar I 3 is soldered to the inside of the vessel as at H and IE to establish good electrical contact, the bar in turn being mechanically and electrically connected at I 6 to a copper shaft II, which is adapted to be rotated by some suitable means not indicated in the drawing. The shaft i1 is rotated at a speed which will give a linear velocity of approximately 6 feet per minute to the periphery of the vessel for a purpose which is hereinafter referred to, the speed of rotation in revolutions per minute of course depending upon the diameter of the vessel being plated.

The shaft l! is electrically connected by way of a copper spring contact brush I8 and a lead l9 to the negative terminal of a source of direct current electrical energy such as a storage cell 20. The positive terminal of the source is connected by lead 2| to a metallic rod 22 which is secured in a position near the inside top edge of the tank l2 but insulated from the tank. Copper plates or bars 23 are suspended from the rod 22 on metallic hooks 24, which provide an electrical connection between the rod 22, the plates 23, the latter forming the anodes of an electrolytic cell. A suitable electrolyte 25 is contained in the tank l2 at a level high enough to completely submerge the vessel being plated. This electrolyte is preferably a copper sulphate solution containing a small amount of sulphuric acid but other solutions may be used. By virtue of its connection to the negative terminal of the source 20, the vessel forms the cathode of the electrolytic cell.

In the plating operation, after all the connections are made, the vessel is rotated at desired speed by the shaft I'I. Due to electrolytic action, the copper of the anodes 23 is dissolved in the electrolyte 25 and copper from the electrolyte is in turn deposited on the outer surface of the mild steel layer ll. As indicated above, none is deposited on the stainless steel inner layer because that layer is protected by a coating of beeswax. The deposited copper fills interstices and covers surface irregularities in the layer II. The electroplating operation is continued until it builds up a layer of copper 28 as shown in Figure 3 of sufficient thickness that the copper forms a path of high conductivity.

The method of electroplating described herein is characterized by extreme simplicity in the apparatus required and in operation. The copper coating deposited on the vessel is of uniform thickness except on the bottom edge, where it is desirably somewhat thicker than on other portions of the vessel. Due to stirring of the electrolyte caused by rotation of the vessel no 888 bubbles are included in the copper coating which is accordingly solid and dense.

Due to the tlmeand current requirements for electrodepositing the large bulk of copper it may be preferred to build up the layer 28 to the desired thickness by the spraying of hot copper particles after a first cost of electrodeposited copper has been applied. The copper is a much better conductor of heat than either the liner Ill or the layer II and therefore it assists in evenly distributing heat around the cooking vessel in use so as to prevent as far as possible the formation of local hot spots which might cause burning or scorching of the food whether in liquid or solid form.

In coating the vessel, a coat of copper of thicker cross section than that of the rest of the copper layer is formed at the bottom edge of the utensil. This thickened portion is illustrated at 21 in Figure 3. It serves the function of thermally reinforcing the junction between the bottom and side walls. As a result, better heat conduction is provided between the bottom of the utensil to which the heat is usually applied and the side walls.

After the vessel has had its copper wall built up to the desired thickness, preferably such that the copper and mild steel layers combined aresubstantially thicker than the stainless steel liner, the outer surface is trimmed and smoothed or finished in any well known manner. The vessel is then ready to have its handle attached.

Referring now to Figure 2 it will be seen that the handle 28 has an enlarged lower end 29 which is placed in contact with the side of the vessel and welded thereto. The handle is preferably an alloy containing about 58% copper, 20% nickel, 20% zinc, 1% lead and 1% aluminum. Such an alloy has a melting point of about 1800" F. which is slightly below the melting point of the copper coating 26 on the outside of the vessel; copper has a melting point of about 1982 F.

In order to attach the handle its enlarged end 29 is heated to a welding heat and then placed contiguous the copper coating of the utensil when it may be held in place by means of the clamps ll until welded. In order to prevent bending the walls of the vessel from their desired shape an iron or steel block 3| is made of a size to snugly fit within the vessel to keep the walls from being bent inwardly. If the vessel were made entirely of copper it would be difilcult if not impossible to satisfactorily weld the handle because the good conductivity of the copper would distribute the heat from the handle to so large a portion of the vessel walls as to cause them to melt out of shape even if a block were placed inside the vessel. A good weld can be obtained in the present instance because the steel layers are functionally useful not only in mechanically reinforcing the copper during the welding so as to prevent plastic flow of the copper under the pressures used in the welding process, but also in reducing dissipation of heat from the welding area due to the relatively poor heat conductivity of steel. The dotted lines 22 indicate the location of the bluish discoloration in the stainless steel liner after welding tom and side walls. As a consequence, heat applied to the bottom will be distributed-over the whole of the bottom and side walls and food within the vessel will be heated uniformly. The increased thickness of copper at the junction between the bottom and sides of the vessel has been found desirable in better distributing the heat up the side walls from the bottom. In other words, it has been discovered that increased and satisfactory heat transfer can be made possible by thickening the copper coating only at the junction between the walls and bottom and without the necessity of having the bottom and side walls of a greater thickness. The thickened edge portion is also desirable because a substantial thickness of copper remains on the edge even after the vessel has been subjected to wear caused by the rough handling encountered in actual practical use.

The particular reason why deposited copp r adheres more firmly to the ordinary steel layer ll than it does to the stainless steel layer I is not known nor understood. Moreover, the reason why my vessel" is free from warping also is not understood because the stainless steel layer l0 has a coefllcient of expansion closer to that of copper than does the layer I I. It was this closeness in coefiiciency of expansion that may have misled the prior investigators and caused them to exert their efforts toward uniting copper and stainless steel directly. At any rate, these efforts at directly uniting copper and stainless steel have not proven satisfactory and the discovery of this invention appeared at first to be a step in the wrong direction.

However, cooking vessels made under this ill-o vention have been tested out for some time and found to be commercially satisfactory. Due to the intimate uniting between the three layers l0, H, and I2, no protecting bead of stainless steel is necessary to be formed.

A particular advantage of my vessel is its freedom from the warping and blistering which are encountered in vessels of two-ply material after a certain amount of use. The freedom from warping may be due to the fact that the metals having approximately equal coefficients of expansion, namely the stainless steel inner layer and the copper outer layer, counter-balance each other, the relatively thick inner layer of mild steel serving as a stiffener. Whatever may be the true explanation of this property, it forms an importantfeature of my invention. The other property mentioned, namely freedom from blistering is also ver valuable. I attribute this characteristic to the particular process of electroplating employed. Rotation of the vessel during this process insures an even deposit of copper because the rotation causes removal of gas bubbles from the vessel surface. Thus, as the copper layer is formed, no gas is trapped between the copper and the base metal.

Among the advantages or this invention may I be mentioned the much improved and neater utensil, the handle of which is united by welding and therefore eliminates the necessity for riveting as has heretofore been I customary. A particular advantage of this method of attaching the handle is that no warping of the vessel is caused by it. Such warping would almost inevitably result were the whole vessel to be heated.

Thus it will be seen that there is had in my invention a utensil and method of producing the same in which the various objects hereinbefore set forth, together with my thoroughly practical advantages, are successfully achieved. It will be seen that the vessel is rugged, and well adapted to handling in use,- that it is calculated to be free of warping and blistering in use, and that it is designed to give uniform heating through bottom and side walls. Also it will be seen that my utensil is produced in a simple, direct, and eflicient manner.

As many possible embodiments may be made of my invention and as many changes may be made in the embodiments hereinbefore set forth, it will be understood that all matter described herein, or shown in the accompanying drawing, is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A culinary vessel whose bottom and sides havean inner layer of stainless steel, an intermediate layer of low carbon steel, and an outer layer of electrodeposited copper, said vessel having a handle of an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc in which copper is the main constituent but having a melting point substantially lower than that oi copper, said handle being pressure welded to the outer copper layer of the vessel.

2. The method of attaching a handle to a vessel comprised of stainless steel on the inside and copper on the outside which comprises heating a handle of nickel-zinc-copper alloy having a lower melting point than copper, and shaped to provide a portion contiguous the vessel which is of greatly enlarged area compared to a cross section of the handle away from such area, to substantially its welding temperature at least at the enlarged end of the handle; and pressure contacting said enlarged heated end oi the handle with the copper on the outside of said vessel without previously heating the copper to near its welding temperature to eflect pressure welding thereto.

3. A culinary vessel having bottom and side wall portions with inner layer of stainless steel and outer layer of copper, and a handle comprised of an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc in which copper is the main constituent and'having a melting point substantially lower than that oi copper, said handle being pressure welded to the outer copper layer of the vessel.

ANGELO C. SCAVULLO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES rs'rau'rs Number Name Date 978,652 Rodger Dec. 13, 1910 1,624,273 Murphy Apr. 12, 1927 1,788,817 Wilson et 'al. Jan. 13, 1931 1,961,117 Wall May 29, 1934 2,034,057 Reuss Mar. 17, 1936 2,272,609 Kennedy et a1. Feb. 10, 1942 2,358,104 Bcavullo Sept. 12, 1944 

